1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicular illumination device, and more particularly to a vehicular illumination device which controls a light distribution of a headlamp or the like.
2. Related Art
A technology described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2006-21631 has been proposed as a vehicular illumination device for controlling a light distribution of a headlamp or the like.
The technology described in JP-A No. 2006-21631 proposes the provision of: a plurality of light sources that illuminate respectively different regions and form a predetermined light distribution pattern, the whole of which includes a main light distribution region and a peripheral light distribution region; a camera that captures images forward of the vehicle; a hazard judgment section that, on the basis of images acquired by the camera, identifies hazardous objects that are pertinent to passage of the vehicle as hazards; and a light source control section that, if a hazard identified by the hazard judgment section is outside the main light distribution region, alters an orientation of a plurality of the light sources to illuminate the hazard. That is, the technology described in JP-A No. 2006-21631 proposes performing light distribution control such that an object around a subject vehicle is identified by imaging it with a camera and a light axis is oriented with respect to the identified object.
However, with the technology described in JP-A No. 2006-21631, when a non-subject or an opposing vehicle is identified and light distribution control is being performed, if the subject vehicle drives over a step in a road surface, then the subject vehicle is tilted on the way, and thus the opposing vehicle temporarily falls outside a detection range of the camera so that the light distribution control is ended. Then, after driving over the step, the subject vehicle returns to its initial attitude, and the illumination object re-enters the detection range of the camera, whereupon light distribution control starts again. Thus, in conditions in which there are many steps in a road surface, light distribution control will be started and ended repeatedly. Accordingly, there is room for improvement of the light distribution control.